Concerned Public Health Professionals on the Israeli attack on Gaza

The following is a statement issued by some concerned public health professionals in New Delhi, on 21st July, 2014

The world is once again witness to the macabre dance of death in Gaza unleashed by the Israeli aggressors, and once again the news of scores of innocent Palestinian deaths, including those of a number of women and children, is flooding in. The tragedy is compounded many-fold by the conspiracy of silence on this issue entered into by all the major powers of the world, who have singularly failed to take any effective measure to restrain the Israeli aggressors. The only exception to this silence is USA, Israel’s long time sponsor, which has once again blocked efforts at the United Nations to pass any motion of censure against Israel.

Israel’s alibi for the latest attack – to punish perpetrators of abduction and murder of three Israeli boys, holds little merit when Israel is the occupying force in first place and its leaders are belligerently calling for annihilation of ordinary Palestinian lives without discretion in accordance with their doctrine of ‘collective responsibility.’ The deputy speaker of Israeli Knesset, Moshe Feiglin has called Arab people “a gang of bandits” and has argued in favor of Israeli government cutting off electricity supply to Gaza in order to paralyze its hospitals. His reported statement is – “The blood of a dialysis patient in Gaza is not redder than the blood of our IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) soldiers who will, God forbid, need to enter Gaza.”

History stands testimony to the bloody war games that Israel has unleashed on the Palestinian people, beginning with the cold blooded massacre of 5,000 in 1956 at Khan Younis, the execution of 35,000 prisoners of war in 1967 with total disregard to the international law, thousands of wounded and hundreds killed in the first intifada by the Palestinians against the occupiers and more than 5000 wounded in south Gaza alone since 2000. In the war unleashed on Gaza between Dec 2008 and Jan 2009, almost a million and half tonnes of explosives were rained on the Gaza strip in which more than 1500 Palestinians were killed, which included a huge number of women and children.

The travesty of fate is that it is the Palestinians, who nurtured Judaism and protected the Jews for over a millennium in the Middle East, who are the sole victims of the Jewish state’s aggression, while those who tormented the Jews in Europe, or those who acquiesced in this process through their silence are today firmly standing with the Zionist state.

It is indeed most unfortunate that from being a champion of the rights of the Palestinian people at one time, the Government of India today has turned a blind eye to their misery. As public health professionals we have special concerns for the long term impact of the conditions of perpetual war on the health status of the Palestinian people apart from the deaths and injuries inflicted in the ongoing hostilities. According to a study on the ‘Effect of chronic exposure to humiliation on well-being in the occupied Palestinian territory,’ published in the reputed medical journal The Lancet in December 2013 “chronically humiliated men and women, compared with other patterns of exposure, had less access to basic resources; higher insecurity or fear; higher feelings of depression; higher feelings of being broken or destroyed; higher trauma-related stress; higher community belonging; and higher marital quality. Chronically humiliated women also reported less personal freedom and poorer health.” These facts make it all the more important that justice be done to the Palestinian people.

We the undersigned public health / health professionals, express our fullest solidarity with the Palestinian people in their hour of grief and forcefully demand that:

All parties to the dispute should immediately halt hostilities without pre-conditions.

Indian government should unambiguously condemn the barbaric attack by Israeli aggressors on the people of Gaza.

Indian government should assure the Palestinian people of India’s continued support for their just cause both in words and in action. The government should launch all possible diplomatic efforts to mobilize international public opinion against Israeli aggressors and pledge all possible support for relief and rehabilitation of Palestinian people.

Last but not the least we call upon the vast sections of Indian masses to come out in support of the brave Palestinian men, women and children who have steadfastly stood up against aggression, death and destruction unleashed by Israel to keep alive their justified national aspirations.

-sd-

Name & Designation

Dr Binayak Sen – Human Rights activist and Public Health physician.

Dr Imrana Qadeer – Professor, Council for Social Development, New Delhi & Retired Professor, Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health, JNU.

One thought on “Concerned Public Health Professionals on the Israeli attack on Gaza”

Reblogged this on dreamstocks and commented:
These article shows about the concern of India public health professionals on the Israeli attack on Gaza. Very well said. Me, as (a candidate^^) public health professionals, also have similar concern for the long term impact of the conditions of perpetual war on the health status of the Palestinian people apart from the deaths and injuries inflicted in the ongoing hostilities. Lets send our best doa and don’t stop to support them by donate our little bit ‘rejeki’, at least that’s a thing that we can do from here. and surely always believe in Allah :)